Type of Work

.......Julius Caesar is a stage play in the form of a tragedy centering on the death of Julius Caesar and the downfall of one of his killers, Marcus Brutus. Because the drama recounts actual historical events, it may also be referred to as a history play. 

Key Dates

Date Written: 1598-1599. 
First Performance: Probably 1599 at the Globe Theatre.
First Printing: 1623 as part of the First Folio, the first authorized collection of Shakespeare's plays.

Sources
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.......Shakespeare based the play on “Caesar,” a chapter in Parallel Lives, by Plutarch (46?-120?), as translated by Sir Thomas North from Jacques Amyot’s French version. The French version was a translation of a Latin version of Plutarch’s original Greek version. Shakespeare may also have borrowed ideas from Dante’s Divine Comedy (in which Brutus and Cassius occupy the lowest circle of hell) and Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (in which “The Monk’s Tale” presents Caesar as a victim rather than a villain).
 

Settings
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.......The play begins in Rome on February 15, 44 B.C., and ends in Philippi, Greece, in 42 B.C. when Cassius and Brutus commit suicide after battling the forces of Mark Antony and Octavian. Part of the action is also set in the camp of Brutus and Cassius near Sardis (in present-day Turkey). 

Characters

Protagonist: Brutus
Antagonists: Antony, Caesar 
Foil of Brutus: Cassius 

Julius Caesar: Triumphant general and political leader of Rome. Although he is highly competent and multi-talented, he is also condescending and arrogant. In his conversation, he frequently uses the third-person "Caesar" instead of the first-person "I" to refer to himself and also sometimes substitutes the kingly "we" for "I."  He depicts himself as a man of unshakable resolve, but he proudly and recklessly ignores warnings about his safety. Rumors abound that he plans to be crowned king. Historically, evidence to support the view that Caesar sought elevation to a throne is inconclusive. 
Marcus Brutus: Roman senator and praetor who helps plan and carry out Caesar's assassination. Historically, Marcus Junius Brutus (84-42 B.C.) enjoyed a reputation in his day among Roman republicans as a noble and fair-minded statesman. However, his opponents—notably supporters of Caesar—regarded him as a traitor. First, Brutus sided with Pompey the Great against Caesar when the Roman Civil War started in 49 B.C. After Caesar defeated Pompey at Pharsalus, Greece, in 48 B.C., he pardoned Brutus and appointed him governor of Cisalpine Gaul in 46 B.C. and a praetor of Rome in 44 B.C. But Brutus turned against Caesar a second time, helping to lead the conspiracy that led to Caesar’s assassination in 44 B.C. Brutus believed the action was necessary to prevent Caesar from becoming dictator-for-life, meaning that all power would reside in Caesar and not in the delegates representing the people. In Shakespeare’s play, Brutus’s nobility and idealism gain the audience’s sympathy. But in the ancient Roman world of power politics, characterized by perfidy and pragmatism, it is his virtues that doom him. His downfall and death are the real tragedy of the play, not the death of Caesar.
Marcus Antonius (Mark Antony): A member of the ruling triumvirate after the assassination of Julius Caesar. Marcus is also known as Mark Antony, or simply Antony. He is cunning and pragmatic, a thoroughgoing politician who can wield words just as effectively as he wields weapons. Antony is a main character in another Shakespeare play, Antony and Cleopatra.
Gaius Cassius Longinus: Clever and manipulative senator who persuades Brutus to join the assassination conspiracy. Unlike Brutus, Cassius is no idealist; his primary motivation for conspiring against Caesar appears to be jealousy. Though small-minded and mean-spirited early in the play, he later displays courage and a modicum of honor on the field of battle.
Octavius Caesar (Octavian): Grandnephew of Julius Caesar and a member of the ruling triumvirate after the assassination of Julius Caesar. Octavius, also known in history books as Octavian, later became emperor of Rome as Augustus Caesar.
Marcus Aemilius Lepidus: A member of the ruling triumvirate after the assassination of Julius Caesar. Because he is weak, he is easily pushed aside.
Cicero, Publius, and Popilius Lena: Roman senators. Cicero, a supporter of republican government, is killed by the supporters of Caesar in the aftermath of Caesar's assassination. However, Cicero did not take part in planning or carrying out the assassination.
Publius Servilius Casca: One of the leading conspirators against Caesar. According to the Greek biographer Plutarch, Casca was the first of the conspirators to stab Caesar, plunging a dagger into his back. 
Other Conspirators: Casca, Trebonius, Ligarius, Decius Brutus, Metellus Cimber, Cinna. (Note: At least 59 conspirators participated in the actual assassination of Caesar in 44 B.C.)
Tribunes: Flavius and Marullus
Artemidorus: Teacher of rhetoric who attempts to warn Caesar that  Brutus, Cassius, and others have turned against him. 
Soothsayer: Seer who warns Caesar to beware of the ides of March (March 15). Shakespeare does not name the soothsayer. However, in ancient texts by Plutarch and Suetonius, the soothsayer is identified as an astrologer named Spurinna. 
Poets: Cinna and an unnamed poet.
Friends of Brutus and Cassius: Lucilius, Titinius, Messala, Young Cato, Volumnius.
Servants of Brutus: Varro, Clitus, Claudius, Strato, Lucius, Dardanius.
Servant of Cassius: Pindarus.
Calpurnia: Julius Caesar's wife.
Portia: Brutus's wife.
Minor Characters: Senators, citizens, commoners, soldiers, guards, attendants, messenger.
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.........On February 15, the day of the annual Festival of Lupercalia, tradesmen gather in streets near the Palatine Hill in Rome to watch mighty Caesar as he passes by in a procession celebrating his triumph over Pompey the Great in the Roman Civil War. Two tribunes, Flavius and Marullus, reproach the tradesmen for their adoration of Caesar. Marullus cries, “You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things!” (1. 1. 27). Once upon a time, he says, the populace gathered to cheer Pompey as he passed in procession. Now, Marullus says, the same people are closing their shops to honor a man who “comes in triumph over Pompey’s blood” (1. 1. 43). Flavius and Marullus then chase the tradesmen home. The two tribunes distrust Caesar, thinking him ambitious and covetous of kingly power. However, their efforts against a handful of tradesmen do little to intimidate the thousands of others gathered to applaud the great general as he and his entourage make their way to the public games. 
.......Mark Antony, a military commander who fought against Pompey and later became a consul of Rome, is “running the course,” a Lupercalia ritual in which the runner strips naked and races through streets with a thong cut from a sacrificial goat. Along the way, the runner strikes any woman he encounters, thus ensuring her fertility. Caesar tells him to be sure to strike Calpurnia, the wife of Caesar, and Antony assures him that he will. From somewhere in the crowd, a soothsayer cries out to Caesar: “Beware the Ides of March” (1. 2. 23). When Caesar calls him closer, the soothsayer repeats his warning. Caesar says, “He is a dreamer; let us leave him: pass” (1. 1. 30). The soothsayer apparently knows what Caesar and his intimate friends don’t know: that prominent citizens are plotting against Caesar and may act against him one month hence, on the Ides of March (March 15), to prevent him from centering all power in himself. 
.......Observing Caesar at some distance is Gaius Cassius Longinus, a former military leader who serves as praetor perigrinus (a high judicial official who decides cases involving foreigners). He is a ringleader of the disenchanted Romans. Envious of Caesar’s power, Cassius tells another prominent citizen, Marcus Junius Brutus—a former military commander who now serves as praetor urbanus (a high judidical offical who decides cases involving Roman citizens)—that Caesar has become much too powerful:

Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a Colossus, and we petty men
Walk under his huge legs and peep about
To find ourselves dishonourable graves. (1. 2. 143-146) 

A lioness hath whelped in the streets;
And graves have yawn’d, and yielded up their dead;
Fierce fiery warriors fought upon the clouds,
In ranks and squadrons and right form of war,
Which drizzled blood upon the Capitol;
The noise of battle hurtled in the air,
Horses did neigh, and dying men did groan,
And ghosts did shriek and squeal about the streets.
O Caesar! these things are beyond all use,
And I do fear them. (2. 2. 21-30 )

Cæsar, beware of Brutus; take heed of Cassius; come not near Casca; have an eye to Cinna; trust not Trebonius: mark well Metellus Cimber: Decius Brutus loves thee not: thou hast wronged Caius Ligarius. There is but one mind in all these men, and it is bent against Cæsar. If thou beest not immortal, look about you: security gives way to conspiracy. (2. 3. 3)

Friends am I with you all and love you all,
Upon this hope, that you shall give me reasons
Why and wherein Caesar was dangerous. (3. 1. 241-243)

He hath brought many captives home to Rome
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill:
Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?
When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept: 
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff. (3. 2. 67-71)

                     ravens, crows and kites,
Fly o’er our heads and downward look on us,
As we were sickly prey: their shadows seem
A canopy most fatal, under which
Our army lies, ready to give up the ghost. (5. 1.97-101)

ANTONY  This was the noblest Roman of them all:
All the conspirators save only he
Did that they did in envy of great Caesar;
He only, in a general honest thought
And common good to all, made one of them.
His life was gentle, and the elements
So mix’d in him that Nature might stand up
And say to all the world ‘This was a man!’ (5. 5. 76-83)
OCTAVIUS   According to his virtue let us use him,
With all respect and rites of burial.
Within my tent his bones to-night shall lie,
Most like a soldier, order’d honourably.
So call the field to rest; and let’s away,
To part the glories of this happy day. (5. 5. 84-89)

Idealism exacts a high price. Brutus has respect, a comfortable home, a loving wife, friends. Yet he willingly risks everything—and ultimately loses everything, including his life—to live up to his ideals. This motif  is a major one in history and literature. Socrates took poison rather than recant his beliefs; Christ was crucified after spreading His message of love and peace. Joan of Arc was burned at the stake, and Thomas More beheaded. In Shakespeare's King Lear, the noblest character, Cordelia, is ordered hanged by the villainous Edgar. In Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities, Sidney Carton goes to the guillotine to save the life of the husband of the woman Carton loves. 
Pride is the harbinger of destruction. Julius Caesar well knows that Cassius poses a threat to him. In Act I, Caesar, upon noticing Cassius in a crowd, tells Antony: “Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look. / He thinks too much: such men are dangerous” (1. 2. 204-205) In other words, Cassius is hungry for revolution, reprisal, against the man he envies; he would bring him to ruin. Nevertheless, Caesar says he does not fear Cassius, “for always I am Caesar” (1. 2. 222), meaning he is the greatest of men and therefore invincible. And so, in the plumage of his pride, Caesar makes himself an easy target for Cassius and his other enemies. A Bible verse encapsulates Caesar’s haughtiness: Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. (Prov. 16. 18.)
Great political ambition breeds great political enmity. The conspiracy against the politically ambitious Caesar begins to form after other government leaders—in particular, Cassius—perceive him as power-hungry.
Deceit wears the garb of innocence. While conniving behind Caesar’s back, his enemies pretend to be his friends.
Recognize and heed warnings. “Beware the ides of March,” a soothsayer tells Caesar (1. 2. 23). But Caesar ignores the warning. He also brushes off the threat he perceives from Cassius  Later, he ignores the warnings of his wife, who tells him of many omens that bode ill for him if he leaves home on March 15 (the Ides of March) to go to the senate. Apparently, in his arrogance, Caesar believes he is invulnerable to the machinations of the conspirators; he is an Achilles without a weak spot. 
Words are powerful weapons. Daggers kill Caesar, but it is the suasion of Cassius and others that seal his fate. And it is the rhetoric of Mark Antony—in particular, in his funeral oration—that turns the people against the conspirators. 
One man’s hero is another man’s villain. Caesar and Brutus are each a villain and each a hero, depending upon the philosophical and moral vantage points of the observers. As Barbara Mowat and Paul Werstine observe: "Many people in the Renaissance were passionately interested in the story of Caesar's death at the hands of his friends and fellow politicians. There was much debate about who were the villains and who were the heroes. According to the fourteenth-century Italian poet Dante, Brutus and Cassius, the foremost of the conspirators who killed Caesar, were traitors who deserved an eternity in hell. But, in the view of Shakespeare's contemporary Sir Philip Sydney, Caesar was a rebel threatening Rome, and Brutus was the wisest of senators. Shakespeare's dramatization of Caesar's assassination and its aftermath has kept this debate alive among generations of readers and playgoers."—Mowat, Barbara, and Paul Werstine, Eds. The New Folger Shakespeare Library: Julius Caesar. New York: Washington Square Press, Published by Pocket Books, 1972 (Page ix).
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.......The climax of a play or another literary work, such as a short story or a novel, can be defined as (1) the turning point at which the conflict begins to resolve itself for better or worse, or as (2) the final and most exciting event in a series of events. There are three key events in Julius Caesar that each appear to qualify as the climax: first, the meeting of the conspirators at which they approve the plan to kill Caesar; second, the assassination of Caesar; and, third, the deaths of Cassius and Brutus, ending all hope of retaining republican government. However, only one of these events appears to meet the requirements of both parts of the definition of climax—the assassination of Caesar. Nevertheless, it is not unreasonable to argue that either of the other two events is the climax, as many Shakespeare scholars have done. 

Figures of Speech

.......Julius Caesar ranks among Shakespeare's finest plays, in part because of its highly effective imagery. Among the many and varied figures of speech in the play are the following: 

Anaphora With Metaphor, Alliteration, and Hyperbole

You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things! (1. 1. 27)
In a metaphor, Marullus compares commoners to inanimate objects. The line also contains alliteration (stones, senseless) and hyperbole and paradox (the spectators have less sense than senseless things).
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Anaphora: repetition of you
Metaphor: comparison of spectators to inanimate objects
Alliteration: stones, senseless
Hyperbole: exaggeration saying that the spectators have less sense than senseless things

Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world 
Like a Colossus, and we petty men 
Walk under his huge legs and peep about 
To find ourselves dishonourable graves. (1. 2. 143-146) 
In a simile, Cassius likens Caesar to a colossus (giant); in a hyperbole, he exaggerates Caesar’s size. The line also contains alliteration (we and walk; his and huge).
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Simile: Likening Caesar to a colossus (giant)
Hyperbole: exaggeration of Caesar's size
Alliteration: we, walk; his, huge

I know he would not be a wolf, 
But that he sees the Romans are but sheep: 
He were no lion, were not Romans hinds. (1. 3. 111-113) 
Casca, addressing Cassius and Brutus, compares Caesar to a wolf and a lion and the Roman citizens to sheep and hinds.
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Since Cassius first did whet me against Caesar, 
I have not slept. (2. 1. 66-67)
Brutus compares himself to a knife that Cassius has sharpened (did whet).
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                                                  O conspiracy, 
Shamest thou to show thy dangerous brow by night, 
When evils are most free? O, then by day 
Where wilt thou find a cavern dark enough 
To mask thy monstrous visage? Seek none, conspiracy; 
Hide it in smiles and affability: 
For if thou path, thy native semblance on, 
Not Erebus itself were dim enough 
To hide thee from prevention. (2. 1. 86-94)
Brutus uses apostrophe and personification, addressing conspiracy as if it were a person, as well as alliteration (thou and thy; where and wilt; mask and monstrous). In an allusion, he refers to Erebus, the Greek god who personified darkness. In a hyperbole, he says that not even the darkness would be dim enough to hide the conspiracy unless appropriate measures are taken to conceal it
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Apostrophe and Personification: Addressing conspiracy as if it were a person
Alliteration: thou, thy; where, wilt; mask, monstrous
Allusion: Erebus, a reference to the Greek god who personified darkness; also, the dark passage through which the souls of the dead pass from earth to Hades
Hyperbole: exaggeration saying that not even the darkest of places, Erebus, would not be dim enough to hide the conspiracy unless appropriate measures are taken to conceal it

.......Mark Antony's funeral oration in Act III, Scene II—beginning with "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears"—is ironic throughout. Though Antony says that he comes to bury Caesar, not to praise him, he praises Caesar for swelling the treasuries of Rome, sympathizing with the poor, and three times refusing the crown Antony offered him. At the same time, Antony praises Brutus—one of Caesar's assassins—as an honourable man even though the tenor of his speech implies otherwise. Near the end of the speech, Antony says, "O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts, / And men have lost their reason." The word brutish occurs after Antony has mentioned Brutus by name nine times. It seems brutish is a not-so-oblique reference to Brutus.
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Ominous Number Three

.......The number three appears to symbolize baleful occurrences. Consider the following events involving the number three:

Mark Antony offers Caesar the crown three times.
The conspirators break up their meeting at three o'clock.
Calpurnia, Caesar's wife, cries out three times in her sleep Help, ho! they murder Caesar!
Cassius tells Casca that Brutus is almost won to the conspiracy, saying, "Three parts of him is ours already."
Antony, belittling Lepidus, says, "Is it fit, the three-fold world divided, he should stand one of the three to share it?

.......Literary critic Mark Van Doren wrote the following about the speech patterns in Julius Caesar:

Julius Caesar is least notable among Shakespeare's better plays for the distinctions of its speech. All of its persons tend to talk alike; their training has been forensic and therefore uniform, so that they can say anything with both efficiency and ease. With Marullus's first speech in the opening scene the play swings into its style: a style which will make it appear that nobody experiences the least difficulty in saying what he thinks. The phrasing is invariably flawless from the oral point of view; the breathing is right; no thought is too long for order or too short for roundness. Everything is brilliantly and surely said; the effects are underlined, the i's are firmly dotted. Speeches have tangible outlines, like plastic objects, and the drift of one of them to another has never to be guessed, for it is clearly stated."—Van Doren, Mark. Quoted in Twentieth Century Interpretations of Julius Caesar. Leonard F. Dean, Ed. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1968.

.......It is believed that a surgical incision had to be made through the abdominal wall and uterus of the mother of Julius Caesar in order to extract him at birth. This belief gave rise to the term "Cesarean birth" (or "Caesarean birth"). Thus, a knife was used to give Caesar life, and many knives were used to end his life.
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Study Questions and Essay Topics

• A soothsayer tells Caesar to beware of the ides of March [March 15]. What is a soothsayer?Does the soothsayer really know the future? Or is he merely a good political analyst (or psychologist) who can see trouble coming? 
• Is Antony motivated more by personal ambition or love for Caesar? 
• Who is the villain in the play? Is there a hero? 
• If you had lived in 44 B.C., Caesar's last year in power, would you have sided with Caesar or Brutus? 
• If Antony were to give his funeral oration in this technological age, where would he deliver it? 
• Do you believe assassination of a head of state can ever be justified? 
• Give examples of 20th Century leaders killed by assassins. Explain why these leaders were targets of assassins. 
• What was everyday life like for an ordinary citizen of Rome? 
• Oratory—especially Antony's funeral oration—plays an important role in this play. How important for a politician in ancient Rome was the ability to speak skillfully in public? Did young Roman nobles receive special training in oratory? 
• Write an essay explaining the role and status of women in Caesar's time. 
• Was Brutus a villain or a hero? Even though he led the conspiracy against Julius Caesar, Marcus Junius Brutus (84-42 B.C.) enjoyed a reputation in his day among Roman republicans as a noble and fair-minded statesman. However, his opponents—notably supporters of Caesar—regarded him as a traitor. First, Brutus sided with Pompey the Great against Caesar when the Roman Civil War started in 49 B.C. After Caesar defeated Pompey at Pharsalus, Greece, in 48 B.C., he pardoned Brutus and appointed him governor of Cisalpine Gaul in 46 B.C. and a praetor of Rome in 44 B.C. But Brutus turned against Caesar a second time, helping to organize and lead the conspiracy that led to Caesar’s assassination in 44 B.C. Brutus believed the action was necessary to prevent Caesar from becoming dictator-for-life, meaning that all power would reside in Caesar and not in the delegates representing the people. Was Brutus a traitorous villain or selfless hero? In an argumentative essay, take a stand on this question. Use the facts of history—as well as interpretations of these facts, including Shakespeare’s depiction of Brutus—to support the thesis. 
• In an essay, compare and contrast the common people of ancient Rome with the common people of modern America, Britain, or another country. 
• In an essay, compare and contrast Cassius and Brutus. 
• Omens and the whims of fate play a role in Julius Caesar. Write an expository (informative) essay that explains the attitude of the typical ancient Roman toward charms, omens, gods, the whims of fate, and the supernatural in general.